Behind the Jokes and the Armor
by her-royal-praetorship
Summary: A collection of Leo/Reyna drabbles, in no particular order. So far, includes Leo meeting Reyna's mother, Bellona and the watching of telenovelas / Reyna sighs loudly and drops her bag on the table, as if hoping to startle him. "I don't remember letting you use my TV," She says.
1. aurum and argentum

_A/N: Hello, everyone, here is yet another collection of Leo and Reyna moments. They'll probably stay on the fluff side, though I'm not going to promise anything._  
_Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan, and I most certainly don't own the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus books_

* * *

It took everyone quite a while to realize that the only person who Aurum and Argentum liked (besides Reyna, of course), was Leo.

It wasn't until they were all sitting around in the senate room, after a meeting—Annabeth, Percy, Reyna, Frank, Hazel, Jason, and Piper—and Jason was recounting a story about how Aurum and Argentum had attacked him when he tried to sneak into the kitchens for a night time snack.

"Well, it's not that surprising," Hazel had said when they stopped laughing, "They really don't like anyone, you know."

"That's very true," Jason said.

Reyna allowed herself a small smile, "You make them sound like monsters," she said, rubbing Aurum's head in an attempt to comfort him, as he seemed able to sense that he was being made fun of.

"Actually," Piper started, "Reyna's not the only one they like,"

Percy grinned. "Yeah, really? Who else around here is as chilly as Reyna? Octavian?"

"Excuse me—" Reyna started, looking offended.

"They like Leo too," Piper said quickly. Reyna immediately stopped talking, looking flustered.

"Do they?" Jason said, looking incredulously at his girlfriend. He seemed confused that the dogs would like anyone if they didn't like him.

"What, surprised anyone likes Leo more than you?" Percy joked.

"No, I just—" Jason struggled to speak, "It's just that, Leo's Greek, and Aurum and Argentum are, like, extremely loyal to Rome." He turned to Piper, "Do you really think they like Leo?"

"Yes," Piper said firmly. She was watching Reyna as she said this.

"You know, she's right," Annabeth interjected, "I saw Leo throwing a chew toy for Argentum the other day. And Argentum actually grabbed the toy instead of Leo's hand."

"Gods, you guys are being ridiculous," Reyna said, still looking flustered. "Who Aurum and Argentum like is really not that important."

"But is it true?" Percy asked, grinning.

"Ridiculous," Reyna repeated stubbornly.

"Come on, Reyna, you have to have noticed," Jason said.

Reyna sighed loudly. "It's only because he fixed them once," She said quickly. Her cheeks were pink. "They were both coughing up oil fluid and stuff."

"Are you sure?" Hazel asked. "The other Vulcan kids used to take care of them all the time and Aurum and Argentum still bark at them,"

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound from the doorway. After a few seconds, Leo stuck his head around the door, looking sheepish and pleased at the same time.

"It's alright, everyone. I know you guys were so worried about me," He grinned. "But the statue didn't hit me,"

"You knocked over a statue?!" Reyna said, half rising out of her chair.

"Relax, your highness," Leo said, holding out a hand to stop her, "I caught it before it hit the ground," He sank into a chair.

"Hey, we were just talking about you, Leo," Percy said.

"Yeah, apparently Aurum and Argentum actually _like _you," Jason said grudgingly.

"Is that supposed to be weird?" Leo grinned, "Who on earth _doesn'_t like me?"

Everyone snickered at that comment. It was exactly the kind of thing you could expect from Leo Valdez.

The group eventually moved on to other topics, and Aurum and Argentum and their liking of Leo were soon forgotten. But that was the first time that it occurred to Piper that there might be something more than a fluency in Spanish and a few repair jobs between Reyna and Leo. After all, Reyna had still been blushing even after they started talking about the weather tomorrow and the most recent swordfight. And she could have _sworn_ Leo had been looking right at Reyna when he asked who on earth didn't like him.


	2. meet the parents

_A/N: so, here's one of the things that kinda has to be in a fluffy couple fic: meeting of the parent(s). is this the fluffiest thing I'll write for this? no. but i had fun writing it and hopefully you'll have fun reading it! i'm definitely planning on doing a 'reyna meets leo's dad' drabble sometime._

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Leo didn't exactly have loads of experience meeting the parents of girlfriends. But he was pretty sure that things became a hell of a lot more awkward and intimidating when your girlfriend's mother was a goddess. Especially when said mother was the goddess of _war_. If there was any one who Leo was slightly (just slightly, alright?) intimidated of, it was goddesses of anything besides handicrafts and wheat. Even the name Khione still made him shiver.

Bellona showed up in New Rome one day in the fall, demanding to see Reyna. It wasn't that out the ordinary for her to show up, except this time Reyna was out of the camp, looking for imperial gold deposits with Hazel. Which meant that someone had to play host and wait with her until Reyna actually showed up. And since Leo was a fine and gentlemanly young man (Reyna disagreed with him on that, but he _was_) he was the one who hung around with the goddess to wait.

There was an awkward silence after they'd exhausted the normal talk of 'how long till Reyna is back?' and 'I think they're looking for gold'. Leo wondered wildly if bringing up the weather would stave off the inevitable, 'so I hear you're dating my daughter' conversation.

"Reyna tells me the two of you are…" Bellona started suddenly, looking as if she was searching for the correct word. Oh crap, Leo thought, here it comes. "Together," she finished.

"Yeah—I mean, yes, we are," Leo said, attempting and failing to sound mature and confident. He was sure that Percy and Jason hadn't sounded this idiotic when talking to Athena and Aphrodite. Definitely not.

There was a short silence, and Bellona looked at Leo as if she was expecting something. Leo wondered if he was supposed to start telling Bellona about how he 'respected and honored Reyna's virtue' and how he 'wouldn't tarnish Reyna's honor', but those things sounded so stupid in his head, he was sure they'd sound stupid out loud. Besides, Reyna would probably burst out laughing if she heard anyone refer to her "honor" or her "virtue".

Bellona raised an eyebrow. "I suppose I don't have to tell you that Reyna is not to be messed with,"

"Of course not," Leo said quickly, hurriedly. "I'd never—I'd never try to mess with Reyna. I won't hurt her. Promise."

Bellona gave him an appraising look, and then nodded, looking satisfied. "Good. Alright," She turned to look out across the Roman camp. "What time is it now?"

"It's—it's two thirty," Leo said, blinking out of his shock. Was that really all it took for the roman goddess of war to approve of him and move on? "Wait a second—was that all?"

"What do you mean, was that all?" Bellona turned back to Leo.

"I just meant—I thought you would ask me more questions. About Reyna, I mean," Leo said, cursing himself for bringing it up. Why couldn't he have just been happy that Bellona wasn't going to skewer him with her spear for dating her daughter and move on?

Bellona gave him a look that said, go on. "It's just that, uh, Percy Jackson, the greek demigod—you know—told me about when he meet Annabeth's mother, Athena." Leo continued, feeling the ridiculous need to explain his stupid question. "And I guess she asked him a ton of questions and told him to stay away from her daughter—not that I think you guys are the same, or anything," Leo said quickly, cursing his stupidity. He was just digging himself into a bigger and bigger hole. "So I guess I just—"

"So you expected me to threaten you," Bellona interrupted, actually smiling for the first time since he'd meet her. Leo wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "As the Greek goddess Athena threatened the hero Percy for dating her daughter. I see."

"Sorry, it was stupid," Leo said quickly. He was already bracing himself for being blasted into the sky. If there was anything that he had learned from the past two years, it was that gods had ridiculously short tempers. "Forget about it,"

"Don't apologize, Leo Valdez," Bellona said. "I'll answer your question. It is an interesting one." She smiled again. "You see, Leo, I am the goddess of war. And unlike some of the _other _goddesses, I am fully aware of that fact. Unlike your _Greek_ goddesses, Athena or Aphrodite, I do not presume to have wisdom in all areas of life—I know my own limitations. I teach my children battle and warfare, and to make good decisions, and I trust that they will make those decisions. And I trust that my daughter has made the right choice in choosing you."

"But wouldn't you rather that I was Roman?" Leo couldn't stop himself from asking. "Or more…of a warrrior?"

"Of course I would prefer you were roman," Bellona said quickly. "I am a purely roman goddess, I have no counterpart. And my daughter is a very Roman demigod," She said proudly. "But I can accept Greeks at times, I suppose it makes it easier since I have no split personality. I don't have a stake in this fight, I see this endless conflict between Greek and Roman as an observer. As you probably know, Leo Valdez, war doesn't have preferences. I don't choose favorites."

"But wouldn't you want me to be…I don't know, more of a soldier?" Leo persisted.

Bellona raised an eyebrow. "You assume, incorrectly, I'd like to add, that I would prefer someone who knows about war for my daughter. On the contrary, Leo Valdez," Bellona said. "I think that my daughter has had enough of warriors and soldiers. She has enough of all that by herself. She doesn't need someone like that Grace boy or that truly irritating Octavian."

Leo wondered for a second if Bellona was giving him a compliment, and then decided that whatever she actually meant, he was going to take it as one. He was Leo Valdez, after all.

Suddenly, there was a loud commotion and the sound of running footsteps. "I think that's them," Leo said quickly, relieved that the conversation had come to an end. He started out of the door and was almost run over by a frantic looking Reyna.

"Whoa, there, Rey-rey," He said catching her and steadying her, "Slow down,"

"Oh my gods!" Reyna said, looking him up and down like she expected find gaping wounds or a swear sticking into him. "You're here! You're ok!"

"Of course I'm ok," Leo said, feeling mildly insulted that his girlfriend didn't trust him, even though five minutes ago he had been internally hyperventilating. He grinned. "What else did you expect?"

"Oh, gods, I don't know!" Reyna was still looking him up and down as if his existence was a miracle. "I just ran to Frank and he told us that my mother had come and that you guys were actually in _the same room_ and that she was interrogating you, and so I came as fast as I could."

"Slow down," Leo said. Now that his conversation with Bellona was over, he was actually feeling confident about what had happened. "Yeah, I did talk to your mom. It was fine."

If anything, Reyna looked more worried at his answer. "Oh, gods, what did you say? What did she say? Please don't tell me you made her mad, oh—"

"Relax, Rey," He kissed her quickly on the lips; put his hands on her shoulders. "It was good." He smiled. "I think she likes me."

Reyna gave him a suspicious look, removing herself from his arms and starting to back her way towards the door. "I have to go now, but I swear to the gods, Leo Valdez, if you did something bad, I _will_ kill you."

"Ouch!" Leo said, stumbling backwards dramatically, clutching his chest. "That hurt! Geez, Rey-rey, I can't believe you don't trust your own boyfriend."

Reyna rolled her eyes at him. "You're an idiot. I have to go."

"Tell your mom I said good bye," Leo said, smirking.

"I'm ignoring you." Reyna called out of over her shoulder, and disappeared into the door. Leo was still grinning as he watched her go. If this was how Reyna reacted when he meet her mom, then he couldn't _wait_ to see her meet his dad.

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_A/N: so, there it is. hope you all enjoyed. also-follow and favorite away, but reviews are definitely the most motivating (and fun thing) to get as a writer. it honestly doesn't matter if you write just one word, its as long as you say something! and lastly, if anyone has ideas for drabbles, they should definitely tell me!_


	3. telenovelas

_A/N: Yes, I know this has been done before, but I couldn't help myself. Leo and Reyna watching telenovelas together is basically my favorite fluffy scenario for them. Please excuse what is probably terrible spanish, I've taken spanish for years but I'm definetely not fluent by any stretch of imagination. Also, I'm aiming to update this fic every sunday/monday, just fyi. Enjoy!_

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Leo discovers Reyna's telenovela watching habit by accident. He's supposed to be fixing her tv for the millionth time—at first, he had appreciated the chance to poke around in her rooms and needle her about needing his help—but now he's a bit annoyed and wishes that she would just give up on her tv. She really needs to accept that having a mortal tv in the middle of an enchanted, mist-shrouded demigod camp will always be a lost cause.

So, because of this, Leo had been yanking a little too hard on the TV in order to see the wires behind it, and suddenly a cascade of DVDS came falling out and hit him on the head. They're from Netflix, much to Leo's surprise—sometimes he thinks her royal praetorship isn't really aware of the mortal of world. And even more surprising, they appear to be telenovelas. The shotgun marriages-surprise pregnancies-fake siblings kind. Not something Leo thinks Reyna would like.

By the time Reyna comes back from her senate meeting, Leo has fixed her TV and is making good use of it. In the twenty minutes he's watched, the maid has already gotten pregnant and run off with the eldest son.

Reyna sighs loudly and drops her bag on the table, as if hoping to startle him. "I don't remember letting you use my TV," She says. Leo doesn't look up, and eats a piece of popcorn, his eyes glued to the screen.

"Consider it payment," Leo says.

Reyna glares at him. He shows no indication of sensing her glare. "I don't remember letting you eating my popcorn, either."

"That can be payment for the last time I fixed your TV." Leo said. He finally looks up at her, grinning.

Reyna sighs loudly and sits as far from Leo on the couch as humanly possible. Leo holds out the popcorn bowl and she grudgingly takes some. Leo sneaks a look at her. Strands of hair are sneaking out of her braid—falling across her collar bone—and she's sitting ramrod straight, one hand gripping the armrest. He's not sure if that's her normal posture or if it's just a reaction to him.

One the screen, the protagonist Maria sighs into the arms of her older brother's best friend.

"_T__ú eres la luz de mi vida, mi amor_," the guy says as Maria beams. Said bad boy has rippling muscles and appears to be incapable of buttoning up his shirt properly or combing his hair. Leo wonders idly if this is what Reyna likes in guys. Considering that he's pretty sure Reyna was half in love with Jason last year, he'd be surprised. The guy on the screen—or any guy in a telenovela—is miles away from Jason. Leo would like to think that he's far closer to this guy than Jason is. Which would mean—hypothetically—that Reyna should like him. A little bit. Maybe just a tiny bit. Or so he hopes.

"I've already seen this episode," Reyna mutters finally under her breath.

Leo turns to her, grinning. "If I put on one you haven't watched, will you stop complaining about me being here?"

Reyna raises an eyebrow. "Fine." She says, scowling slightly at him, and Leo knows that's as good as he's going to get.

Leo holds a DVD up. "You seen this one?"

Reyna crosses her arms over her chest. "Not yet," She says finally. "And you better not talk during this, either." She adds.

Leo smirks at her. "Whatever you say," He puts on his best telenovela-bad-boy voice, channeling the guy frozen on the screen. "_Mi amor_."

Reyna glares at him, but he swears she's smiling a bit too.

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_A/N: So that's it. Hope you all enjoyed. Also thank you to everyone who has read, faved, followed or reviewed this story, you guys are awesome! :One last thing: if you're interested in the progress on this fic, I put stuff up on my profile, so check it out!_


	4. first impressions

_A/N: This was the first leo/reyna piece I ever wrote, I was initially intending to have it be the start of a long story. Still probably will extend it one day. Enjoy!_

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At first, Reyna didn't think much of Leo Valdez. In fact, when she first met him she literally had no opinion of him at all, being much too busy with Jason 'I have no memory at all' Grace and Piper 'I'm obviously in love with Jason' Mclean and Annabeth 'We might be friends or enemies' Chase. That scruffy looking, grease smudged boy with a cocky smile wasn't exactly on Reyna's list of people to see. She was a praetor after all. She had more important things to worry about than repair boys. Or so she thought.

By the time she actually noticed him, it was too late and stupid Leo Valdez _was firing cannons Camp Jupiter. _He was attacking her home. Hers. Hers because it was the only place she'd ever felt safe and hers because the people had elected her as praetor and they expected her to protect them. And people who attacked her home were nothing more than dirt to Reyna. She hated Leo for attacking her home. She hated every single bit of him, from his shoes to his hair to his eyes, even though they'd hardly meet. That was how much Reyna loved her home.

In the month or so between the Greeks escaping Camp Jupiter on the Argo and them coming back to stop the Roman army from attacking Camp Half-Blood, Reyna had built up a very nice picture of Leo Valdez in her head. It involved Leo being a good for nothing, nasty, back stabbing, _Greek. _The worst kind of Greek. The reckless, lazy, stupid kind. The kind that fired cannons at people's homes for no reason. Reyna liked this picture of hers very much. Sure, she'd started thinking better of Annabeth and their group as a whole after she'd saw Annabeth at Fort Sumter. But that didn't mean Reyna didn't dislike Greeks. Especially ones named Leo.

The Greeks tried to tell Reyna after everything got sorted out and the Roman army stopped invading Camp Half-Blood that it hadn't Leo's fault. Hazel and Frank explained that there had been these spirits possessing people, and that Leo had been possessed. But Reyna was having none of that. She nodded and smiled tightly when they said it, because she was praetor and praetors were supposed to be mature and grown up, but inside her opinion was the same. She did not like Leo Valdez one bit.

She liked him even less when she actually met him. She'd spent so much time disliking him that she'd began to convince herself that she was overreacting, but it turned out that he was even worse than she thought.

"Wow, I can see why your name means queen in Spanish," He had said, grinning like an idiot. Reyna had seen red. She'd wanted to slap him so hard he fell into Tartarus.

"How nice of you to say that," She said icily.

"That's what I'm here for," He'd grinned, and she had felt her temperature rising.

He'd looked confused at her glare. It wasn't till Piper had leaned over and whispered to him, probably something like _remember_ _when you shot at Camp Jupiter with a cannon? _that he stopped looking puzzled.

"Oh gods, I'm so—" he'd started to say, turning pale and tripping over his words to apologize, but Reyna had interrupted him.

"_Idiota,_" She'd spat, and stormed away.

And that was how Reyna meet Leo Valdez.

* * *

Leo knew from the minute he saw Reyna that he was going to like her. She was pretty and intimidating and smart and_ exactly_ his type, which of course meant that he was doomed. He didn't even want to like her—he'd learned his lesson from that ice princess on the quest and all the other beautiful, unapproachable girls that had rejected him throughout the years—but he knew he was going to anyway. It was the nature of being Leo Valdez.

He had convinced himself, in the moments before they actually meet face to face, that he was going to be mature. That he was going to not screw this up and not make some joke that he _thought _was funny, but was really not. That even if he liked her, he wasn't going to make an idiot out of himself. But the minute Frank said, 'and this is Reyna, Praetor of New Rome' all his mature, confident thoughts flew out the window. It was like a reflex. If Leo Valdez came up with a joke, then by gods Leo Valdez was going to say it.

"Wow, I can see why your name means queen in Spanish," He'd said, grinning. Her expression had immediately turned from 'mildly upset' to 'I fucking hate your guts' the space three seconds.

"How nice of you to say that," She had said, ice queen style.

"That's what I'm here for," He'd said. He'd already realized the mistake he'd made, but since he was already in this mess, he figured he should go all in.

She'd just stood there, staring and glaring at him. He had been starting to wonder why she looked so pissed off—his joke had been bad but not that bad—when Piper leaned over and whispered to him:

"I think she's mad about when you accidently attacked Camp Jupiter from the Argo,"

Leo's stomach had dropped like a broken elevator. "Oh gods, I'm so—" He'd started to say.

But she'd interrupted him. "_Idiota_," She said, whirled about, her clock nearly hitting him in the face, and stalked away.

And that was how Leo Valdez pissed off yet another pretty girl.


End file.
